Motif 1.2.x & X11R5

GRASS GIS GRASS GIS developer
1

>Date: Wed, 12 Jan 1994 07:10:21 +1000 (+1000)
>From: Chris W Skelly <gewcs@jcu.edu.au>
>Subject: Re: Motif 1.2.x & X11R5
>
>Hi Again Guys,
>
>At the risk of being rude 8-() I'd like to repeat my previous
>question, which was not meant to be snotty (really!).
>
>My question was: why is a public domain package such as GRASS
>being made dependent upon a commercial product -- Motif? Is
>CERL locking itself into a commercial product because it can make
>pretty buttons? <--- ok this bit is cheeky
>
>I ask simply because I use products like Ximage which do not
>use motif (no fancy 3d buttons on screen), but still have all the
>menus and x functionality...and it doesn't lock the user into
>a commercial product....
>
>Cheers,
>Chris

A *very* good point and I couldn't have said it better myself,
cheekyness and all.

I have wondered and queryed the same issue and suggested that
the Athena Widgets could probably do the job. But in this case,
some systems have not installed the Athena Widgets and ... .
Another alternative is to make your own widget set, but that
takes a lot of time and a higher skill level.

As a bottom line, I think it would have been preferable to
stick with the Athena Widgets.

But whatever route, stay pristene, pure and public.

Gerald (Jerry) I. Evenden Internet: gie@charon.er.usgs.gov
voice: (508)563-6766 Postal: P.O. Box 1027
  fax: (508)457-2310 N.Falmouth, MA 02556-1027

Motif isn't a commercial product in the same way that a database system or
a word processor is. It is more like Unix - there is licensed code, a
trademark, and some special libraries for programming, but all these come
"free" when you buy the workstation. All the workstation vendors except
Sun have included Motif for some time; Sun has committed to it as well.
If you can't wait, you can get a Motif license for making your own code
for $49. Software compiled with motif can be distributed without restriction.

I agree, GRASS cannot become dependent on commercial products, but I don't
think that this is an issue for Motif.

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2

On Tue, 11 Jan 1994, Kenn Gardels (CEDR-REGIS) wrote:

Motif isn't a commercial product in the same way that a database system or
a word processor is. It is more like Unix - there is licensed code, a
trademark, and some special libraries for programming, but all these come
"free" when you buy the workstation.

I beg to differ. I run GRASS on a generic i486 system under Linux. Motif
not included, nor desired. Since this configuration is the least expensive
platform for GRASS around (as far as I can tell), I would be *extremely*
surprised if the user base did not increase dramatically in proportion to
the other platforms. I don't think very many Linux users will be
interested in acquiring a Motif runtime license, just so they can run
XGRASS legally, even if they can download the binaries and don't need the
Motif libraries. They'll probably tend to use public-domain tools to build
their own GUI interfaces, rather than commit themselves to Motif.

I noticed that GRASS 4.2 is supposed to include an object-oriented GUI:
does anybody know if that's going to be based on Motif or other
proprietary software as well?

Software compiled with motif can be distributed without restriction.

Is there word from the horse's mouth on this? My understanding from OSF
was that you have to have a Motif runtime license if you use software
which incorporates Motif code (such as XGRASS).

-- Mark

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